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Monday, April 6, 2015

Jamie Oliver's Best Cauliflower Cheese

More cheese, please! One can never have too much cheese, can one? Do you watch Jamie Oliver's Youtube channel? I love it! There are a lot of meatstuffs there, but many of the recipes can be easily veganized. Last year Sal at Alien on Toast (which just happens to be one of my favorite blogs of ALL TIME) veganized lots of Jamie Oliver's recipes for Vegan MoFo 2014. Awesome stuff!

It's made with cauliflower AND broccoli - so I was sold on that one as soon as I saw it. Did I ever tell you about the time when I was cooking something and needed to ask Mr. Wing-It to get me the cauliflower from the freezer, but I couldn't remember the word "cauliflower" and asked him for the "white broccoli" instead? He knew exactly what I meant because he's used to translating my absent-minded gibberish.

Mmm, white broccoli. Let's food! *gibberish*

This dish is pretty easy to put together. First you get a garlic clove nice and toasty in some butter, then you add a bit of flour and some milk to make a sauce, blend in the broccoli, throw in some cheese, pour it all over your cauliflower florets, top with bread crumbs, crunchy almond slices and more cheese, bake and eat! Veganizing this was a no-brainer. Vegan butter, almond milk, and vegan cheese instead of the dairy stuff. I also doubled the cheese, because cheese.

I used frozen broccoli and cauliflower for mine, but I did leave them in the fridge to let them thaw out overnight. Otherwise that thing would have taken forever to bake into soft, creamy, yumminess. The only thing I would do different next time is that I would skip the almond slices. My tongue felt that the crunchiness of the almonds interrupted the perfect creaminess of the dish. And my tongue likes what it likes.

For the cheese I used some more of the GO Veggie! products that I told you about last week. For this one I used the GO Veggie! mozzarella shreds and I also added a couple of tablespoons of the parmesan-style topping to the sauce and all over the top of the dish. The mozzarella melts FAST! I knew this because I had melted some on pasta a few days ago and it only took a few seconds to get soft and gooey. I actually waited to top this dish with the mozzarella shreds until it was ready to come out of the oven, and then I baked it for an extra minute with the shreds on top. The mozzarella is mild and it most definitely melts! I need to melt it on a pizza next. Us vegans are obsessed with melting vegan cheeses, aren't we? I love the flavor of the parmesan-style topping. It's also very mild and it goes well with nearly everything. I've used it in soups, pasta, sprinkled it on pizza, stirred it into polenta. It's a very recipe-friendly flavor. When Mr. Wing-It and I are traveling we always carry some in our cooler. In fact, when we are traveling we also always carry GO Veggie! vegan cheddar slices in our cooler. Quick pastas and sandwiches are road-food staples for us.

I haven't shared any duck photos in a while, so here's today's episode titled "The One Where Mr. Wing-It Tries to Dig a Hole."

The hole was accidentally filled with water because Mr. Wing-It was rinsing off some things with a hose nearby, and these little dumplings thought it would be a good idea to use it as a swimming pool. Ducks are a lot like cats! They have to inspect everything you're doing and also sit on it. Look at that pesky little dumpling in that bowl of muddy soup!

Disclosure: GO Veggie! sent us these products for free. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The pesky little things are cute! This is a really nice dish indeedy. I can see making a reverse version too, with whole broccoli florets and cauliflower blended into the sauce instead. Can't go wrong either way!

When I saw the title of your post I thought you were making cheese out of cauliflower, which I've done per someone else's recipe, and to which Miss E said, "no thanks." I think she would like this one much better.

I think you need more water-filled holes if you are going to make them so small. It's not fair!

My spam filter put your comment in the spam folder! If I didn't check it daily you would have been left there between the penis enhancement pills and the cheap Nike shoes. Why did it think your comment was spammy? Does it not like Miss E? Weird!

I'll tell Mr. Wing-It to get started on digging multiple holes for our dumplings then. A hole for every duck! :)

So considerate of Mr Wing It to install a swimming pool for the ducks!I love cauliflower/broccoli/cheesy things, they are always so good! We don't have that brand of cheese here, but we do have some other brands with vegan parmesan as well as having several recipes. But I must admit that my tendency is to just pour on a whole pile of straight nooch because nooch is life. ;)

Out of nooch for weeks? Oh my gosh, that is a tragic event.I am sad because the cheap bulk nooch I used to get has put up their prices ridiculously high so no one is stocking it anymore, so I am having to buy it prepackaged at non-bulk prices. And of course I am currently eating more of it than ever before.

Oh, the nooch woes! I have some problems with germs and dirty things. And by "some problems" I mean massive issues. The cheaper bulk nooch at my grocery store is in a little bin at the bottom of the bulk foods area, sitting on the floor. The scoop that belongs to that bin is attached to the frame with a cord, but it can often be seen sitting on the floor instead of being in its place on top of the bin. I cannot scoop out nooch with a scoop that has been on the floor where people walk with their dirty dog-poop shoes! So I have the prepackaged one at non-bulk prices too. Oy!